
PEGGY'S TRIAL 


FT MEfiOE 
GenColl 


COSY CORNER SERIES 


MARY KNIGHT POTTER 




Class J?Z7 - 
Book _P 85.4 "P. 
Copyright N“ 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 







PEGGY’S TRIAL 





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“ WHERE, OH, 


WHERE WAS THAT STATION ? ” 

{See page 79.) 



Cosg Comer Series 


PEGGY’S TRIAL 


Mary Knight Potter 


Illustrated by 
Etheldred B. Barry 



Boston ^ ^ ^ ^ 

L. C. Page & Company 
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ igoi 

L ’ 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Copifca Received 


SEP. 16 1901 


Of 

CLASS Cc xXa N«. 


Copyright entry 


/JoZG 


COPY B. 


Copyright, igoi 

By L. C. Page and Company 

(incorporated) 

All rights reserved 


(Colonial 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H Simonds & Co. 
Boston, Mass.. U. S. A. 



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CHAPTER PAGE 

I. A Disappointment i 

II. The Party 9 

III. Cora May’s Trouble . . . .16 

IV. The New Pupil 24 

V. A Race for Life 32 

VI. Friends for Ever . . .- . .40 

VII. A Hint of Dreadful Trouble . . 48 

VIII, The Trial Has Come . . . .58 

IX. Running Away from Home . . .71 

X. The Rescue and Return . . .83 

XL The Stepmother and Peggy’s Thanks- 
giving ...... 89 









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9 PAGE 

“Where, oh, where was that station?” (see 

page yg) ...... Frontispiece 

“ A SMALL BOY CAME SLIDING DOWN THE BAN- 
ISTERS ” 2 , 

“ She burst into tears and buried her 

GOLDEN HEAD IN PeGGY’S LAP ” . . . l8 

“He WAS shouting at the top of his lungs” 22 
“She started once more after the little 


figure” 37 

“‘Dragging me and the horse after him’” 50 
“‘Mother! Mother!’ she sobbed” . . 56 

“ ‘ He gave the most awful squawk ’” . -65 

“They were a decidedly subdued trio” . 73 


“ She gazed at the two dear people be- 


fore HER 



PEGGY’S TRIAL 


CHAPTER I. 

A DISAPPOINTMENT. 

Peggy Clayton stood on the front steps 
with her ten-year-old forehead puckered into 
half-century wrinkles. 

She had followed her father out of the house, 
watched him toss his medicine case up to Jim 
in the buggy, climb in -himself, wave a last 
good-bye, and drive up the street at a speed 
which soon whisked them around the corner, 
out of sight. As this was what happened 
every morning, there was apparently no reason 
for the lines on the forehead or the deep sigh 
with which she turned slowly into the house. 

She had hardly shut the door before a voice 
shouted, “ Did you ask him .? What did he 


I 


2 


Peggy’s trial. 


say } ” Along with the words a small boy 
came sliding down the banisters and landed 
in triumph on his feet beside her. 

“Ted,” said his sister, severely, “you are a 
bad boy. You know 
Nurse said you were 
not to slide down 
those banisters with 
your new suit on.” 

“ Bother Nurse ! ” 
answered Teddy, 
nevertheless survey- 
ing two short trouser 
legs with some ap- 
prehension. “ Did 
father say you 
could y he added, 
impatiently. • 
Peggy drew-'.bim 
into the office and 
closed the door.' 

“I never got a chance, to ask him,” she said, 
disconsolately. “He was giving Nurse direc- 
tions about Harry’s foot, and then Mr. Carter 
came in.” 

“Mr. Carter! ” exclaimed Teddy, in surprise. 



A DISAPPOINTMENT. 



“ Why, he went more’n half an hour ago. Why 
didn’t you ask then ? ” 

Peggy opened the door, looked up and down 
the hall, and shut it carefully again before she 
answered. 

“ Nurse was there right after and told about 
our going down to the river yesterday, and she 
said she was sur^ Harry got his foot hurt climb- 
ing over the stone wall. And he left word that 
we were never to go there again without asking 
permission first.” 

“Bother! ”y said Teddy, with all the empha- 
sis that word could carry, ‘f Well, why didn’t 
you ask him after that ? ” 

Peggy locked at him scornfully. 

“With Nurse just complaining about us 
He’d have said no, sure.” 

“ Niirse is always complaining,” said Teddy, 
wagginj^his head judicially. “ If you wait to 
ask till she isn’t saying disagreeable things, 
you’ll never get the party.” 

“ And besides,” added Peggy, forlornly, “ if I 
don’t have it Thursday, Cora May will be gone.” 

Cora, May was a visitor in town. Teddy had 
decided more than two weeks before, which was 
almost immediately after her arrival, that she 


4 


Peggy’s trial. 


was much the prettiest and nicest girl he knew. 
Except, of course, Peggy. No one, so far, had 
ever been superior to Peggy. 

The party without Cora May, therefore, struck 
him as being ridiculous, and not to be considered 
for a minute. 

“ If Nurse hadn’t been so hateful,” he scolded, 
“ we could have had the party all right without 
asking him at all.” 

“Well,” replied Peggy, “we can’t ask him 
now, for he won’t be home till late this evening. 
And cook says if she doesn’t know to-day she 
won’t have time to make the cake.” 

Just then Nurse’s voice was heard reminding 
them that if they didn’t hurry they would be 
late for school. 

“ It’s always school-time,” grumbled Ted. 
“Wish I’d hurt my foot instead of Harry. 
He always does have the luck.” 

“ I don’t call it much luck to have to sit in a 
chair all day with your foot on another,” said 
Peggy.. “ It’s foolish to make a fuss about 
going to school,” she added, virtuously. 

“ ’Tisn’t a bit more foolish,” flared Teddy, 
“than to make a fuss about an old party. / 
don’t care if you don’t have one at all.” 


A DISAPPOINTMENT. 5 

His nose was as high in the air as that 
already turned-up article would go. 

Peggy’s feelings were much hurt. 

‘‘You are pretty mean,” she sputtered. “ I’ll 
tell Cora May you don’t want her to come. 
Then I guess she’ll think you are polite.” 

She pursed up her lips tightly as she put on 
her things, and started off at a rapid pace down 
the street. 

Teddy followed, tugging at the jacket Peggy 
usually helped him into. 

Just then, around the corner, came a bright- 
eyed, charmingly dressed young lady. She 
called a cheerful greeting to the children. 

The two gave a simultaneous shout and threw 
themselves bodily upon her. The young lady 
was Miss Edith Barton. She was Peggy’s Sun- 
day-school teacher, and quite the loveliest lady, 
according to all three Clayton children, that 
ever lived. 

“ It seems to me,” said Miss Barton, after a 
moment’s survey of the two flushed faces, “that 
all is not quiet on the Potomac. What’s up, 
youngsters ? ” 

“We’ve both been cross,” answered Peggy. 
Her honesty did not incline her to take more 


6 


Peggy’s trial. 


than her share of the blame. ‘‘ But the real 
trouble is that I wanted to ask father if I 
couldn’t have a party Thursday for Cora May, 
and I didn’t get a chance. Now I sha’n’t see 
him till to-night, and that will be too late for 
the cook to know.” 

I should think Nurse would settle that mat- 
ter,” said Miss Barton. 

“ She doesn’t want us to have one,” confessed 
Peggy. 

“But it’s just because she wants to go away 
that afternoon, and she thinks we can’t have a 
party without her.” Ted’s voice expressed great 
scorn. 

Miss Barton’s eyes twinkled. “Nurse has 
had the care of you so long,” she said, apolo- 
getically, “you can’t wonder she thinks you 
need her all the time. But perhaps we can 
persuade her to delegate her authority.” 

Teddy’s eyes opened, and Peggy bent her 
brow in a frown. The meaning of such big 
words was beyond them. 

Miss Barton laughed, and pinched Peggy’s 
cheek. 

“ Which means that if somebody else, almost 
as old and as wise as Nurse is herself, could 


A DISAPPOINTMENT. / 

be there, perhaps she would agree to the 
party.” 

‘‘There isn’t anybody else so old,” said 
Peggy, gloomily, “and she thinks she’s the 
only person who knows anything about taking 
care of children.” 

The young lady studied the two, her eyes 
laughing. Peggy’s coat looked as if it might 
have been brushed a week ago. Her skirt had 
a rip in it which evidently was not of very recent 
happening. Teddy’s boots perhaps could be 
dirtier, but probably would not look so. 

The laugh went out of Miss Barton’s eyes, 
and a little flush crept up her cheeks. She 
suddenly bent down and kissed Peggy. 

“Nurse has had a good deal of experience,” 
she said. “ And I am afraid you don’t always 
make it as easy for her as you might. But 
I think she will agree to this other wise lady 
taking her place. Because, you see,” she 
straightened Teddy’s necktie as she spoke, 
“the wise lady is myself.” 

Peggy gave a whoop that would have done 
credit to the lungs of a youthful Apache, and 
threw both arms about the waist of the lady. 

“Will you.^ Areii!t you good! Ted, Ted, 


8 


Peggy’s trial. 


do you hear ? ” The small boy didn’t seem fully 
to realise the blessing so suddenly descended 
upon them. “ We can have the party. Miss 
Barton’s going to be there.” 

“ If you don’t hurry up and get to school,” 
said this straightener of difficulties, ‘‘you’ll be 
kept in so late Thursday you won’t have any 
time for a party at all. Run along, children, 
and I’ll go up to the doctor’s and tell Nurse.” 


CHAPTER II. 


THE PARTY. 

After that, of course, there was no more 
trouble. Harry at first felt greatly aggrieved 
that Peggy should have any party at all when 
he couldn’t join in the games. To his mind the 
presence or absence of Cora May was a matter 
of minor importance. 

She’s only an outside girl,” he complained. 
‘‘ She isn’t your brother, like me.” 

I.uckily for the family’s peace. Miss Barton 
understood the art of soothing small boys’ 
hurts. Thursday afternoon, when Peggy and 
Ted got home, they found Harry in his new 
white pique suit, with all signs of disturbance 
gone. Nurse had left early, and Miss Barton 
helped him dress. 

She had beguiled the time with such exciting 
stories of Indians and cowboys that he forgot 
9 


lO 


Peggy’s trial. 


his lame foot. Moreover, she had promised 
that next month, on his eighth birthday, she 
would take him to Scranton, to see Buffalo Bill’s 
Wild West Show. That wns the finishing balm 
for Harry’s wounded spirit. Neither Ted nor 
Peggy had ever been to the Wild West Show. 

With such an exciting prospect before him, 
he was able to view with cheerfulness the better 
times of the other two this afternoon. 

The party was to be outdoors, with games on 
the big lawn, and tea in the orchard. A hand- 
organ man came into town that morning, and 
Miss Barton secured him at once for orchestra. 

At four o’clock most of the children had 
arrived, and, as they trooped out of the house, 
he wound out the strains of a lively march. 

Miss Barton and Harry sat on the piazza with 
trays full of bright-hued ribbon rosettes. Each 
boy took one from Miss Barton, while Harry 
passed his to the girls. Those whose rosettes 
matched in colour were thus made partners. 

The first thing. Miss Barton said, was to be a 
grand march, and she chose Peggy and Dicky 
Aiken for leaders. 

Up and down, around and across, the two 
piloted the line, Dicky was as full of brilliant 


THE PARTY. 


I I 

ideas as Peggy, and the manceuvres they man- 
aged between them were wonderful to see. 

In the very centre of the lawn was a tall pole, 
decorated with wreaths of flowers. Long, col- 
oured ribbons hung from its top, two of them 
being decidedly shorter than the others. To- 
ward the end of their convolutions, Peggy and 
Dick led their followers into a circle about this 
pole. Then Miss Barton clapped her hands, 
and commanded them all to stop just where 
they were. She told each child to take the end 
of one of the floating ribbons, reserving the 
shortest two for Peggy and Dick. 

“Now,” she said, “you two are to dance to 
the music, and whatever kind of step you take, 
the ring outside is to imitate it. No matter 
what figures you make, none of you must drop 
the ribbons.” 

Then the organ reeled out a gay waltz. 
Peggy and Dick faced each other and started 
into a most remarkable exhibition of high kick- 
ing all about the pole. It was not easy, they 
found, always to keep the ribbons’ ends, to 
dance in step, and at the same time to continue 
circling about the pole. 

At the end of two minutes Miss Barton 


2 


Peggy’s trial. 


clapped her hands again. Peggy and Dick 
dropped the short ends and two others took 
their places. Thus it went on till all the 
couples had been leaders. Of course each 
pair tried to outdo those who had gone before. 
Most of them attempted all sorts of funny 
antics, jumping as high as they could and filling 
in the pauses of the music with ridiculous bows 
and curtsies. 

Cora May’s turn came last of all. By means 
known only to himself, Ted had managed to be 
her partner. Now Ted was not noted as a 
dancer. He could climb trees or run races with 
the best, but somehow, in dancing, his feet 
always seemed in his way. 

This time, as he and Cora sprang into the 
centre of the group, neither he nor any one else 
ever minded his feet at all. The truth was, 
Cora May, in her tiny slippers, was a veritable 
thistledown. No one who danced with her 
could help being infected with something of 
her own spirit and grace. 

Forward and back the two went, then they 
balanced partners, tiptoed around each other, 
crossed hands, and finally ended with a whirl- 
ing waltz all about the pole. The whole thing 


THE PARTY. 


13 


was such a pretty, dainty bit, that the children 
applauded vigorously at the close. 

Harry and Miss Barton held a whispered 
consultation for a few minutes. 

“ We have tried to be as impartial,” she 
announced, “as if we were twenty judges in- 
stead of two. Everybody has done beautifully, 
but we think the prize ought to go to Cora 
May and Ted.” 

The rest of the children clapped harder than 
ever as she hung a lovely necklace of blue Vene- 
tian beads about Cora’s neck, and gave Ted a 
big Japanese kite. 

Peggy, however, regarded this last donation 
with some disfavour. 

“ Dick dances lots better’n you do,” she 
said to Ted, plainly. “It’s only because Cora 
May did so well that no one noticed you.” 

But Ted was quite untroubled. 

“Of course,” he said, sweetly, “you didn’t 
suppose I was such a goose not to know that, 
did you Why, if she had a turkey for partner 
it wouldn’t matter.” 

After the dancing came a hunt for peanuts. 
These were hidden all over the lawn, — in crev- 
ices of the stone wall, in an old bird’s nest that 


14 


Peggy’s trial. 


hung low on a broken limb, under the piazza 
steps, among the rose-bushes, — everywhere and 
anywhere. 

Then they were all marched down to the or- 
chard. Here beneath the wide branches was a 
long table set with all kinds of good things to eat. 
Harry was helped to a chair at the very head. 
He was allowed also to cut the Fairy Cake,” 
as Miss Barton called a white, frosted affair 
that filled a big silver salver. 

Before the first slice was made, she stood in 
front of it, and in a solemn tone repeated these 
lines : 

“ Cake, O ! Cake ! of wondrous bake, 

Of thy sweetness we’d partake ; 

Give us each, for fairy’s sake. 

Gifts thou hast within thy make.” 

Then with a long, slender knife, Harry boldly 
plunged into the very heart of this white mystery. 
No wonder Miss Barton called it a fairy cake ! 
What other name was suitable for one whose 
every slice hid within its yellow, creamy sides 
some little gift ! 

Of course sometimes a girl found a fine glass 
agate or a wooden top in her portion. That 
didn’t matter, though, for there was always a 


THE PARTY. 


15 

boy willing to swap for a tiny porcelain doll, 
or pewter pitcher. It only proved that Harry 
had bestowed the pieces according to his own 
fancy, rather than as a wise fairy would have 
dictated. 


CHAPTER III. 

CORA may’s trouble. . 

Toward the end of the feast Peggy noticed 
that Cora May seemed very silent. Even Ted 
couldn’t make her laugh. Finally, when the rest 
began to play I-spy, Peggy found her sitting 
by the playhouse under the trees. She had a 
most forlorn expression on her face as she sat 
there digging holes in the ground with a stick. 

Peggy stood looking at her anxiously. 

“ Is anything the matter ? ” she asked. Cora 
had paid no attention to her except to dig holes 
faster than ever. . 

*‘You know I’m going home to-morrow,” she 
said, “ and — and — I was thinking what a nice 
time I’d had here. And how lovely Miss Barton 
is — and — and,” she swallowed bravely, “and I 
wished I was you, Peggy, so I could here, 
all the time.” 


6 


CORA may’s trouble. 


17 


“ Oh, dear ! ” Peggy tried to give the con- 
versation a lighter tone. “ You wouldn’t like 
it at all to be me. You wouldn’t have such 
lovely curls, and you’d have big feet instead of 
those little teeny things you dance on just like 
a butterfly.” 

Cora May smiled, as Peggy meant she should, 
but the corners of her mouth dropped immedi 
ately afterward. 

“ Curls pull like everything getting combed, 
and make me cry,” she objected. “ And your 
feet aren’t big, and you’re lots smarter’n I am, 
and — and — Doctor Clayton is your father.” 

“ But you have a father, too,” said Peggy. 
“You showed me his picture, and I think he’s 
just elegant-\ooVm^'' 

“Maybe he is,” answered Cora May," unen- 
thusiastically, “ but I haven’t seen him since I 
was a little bit of a girl, when he left me with 
grandmother after mother died. And now — ” 
her voice dropped and she looked around appre- 
hensively — “and now he’s coming home with a 
stepmother. And I hate her — I hate her. 
I know I shall hate her.” She burst into tears 
and buried her golden head in Peggy’s lap. 

Peggy didn’t know at all what to do, but sat 


i8 


Peggy’s trial. 


and rubbed the curls all up and down the 
wrong way till there wasn’t a hair untangled. 
Peggy had read about wicked stepmothers in 



fairy tales more than once. Still, she had a 
doubt as to whether they were always true 
descriptions. Anyway, it was necessary to 
comfort Cora May, somehow. 


CORA may’s trouble. 


19 


“ But perhaps she’ll be nice,” she suggested, 
timidly. “ Perhaps she’ll be better than a 
grandmother.” 

Peggy’s only grandmother was her father’s 
mother. She was very deaf and very lame and 
always very much troubled by any childish 
pranks. 

But Cora May looked up indignantly. “ My 
grandmother is just beautiftd^" she said. “ It 
was she told me they’d take me away from her. 
And I know stepmother will tell father I am 
horrid and he won’t like me at all.” The big 
tears rolled down her face in streams. 

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Peggy, in deepest distress, 
“ is a stepmother so bad 1 ” 

Then suddenly her face lighted up and she 
took Cora May’s hand and patted it. 

“Don’t you worry one bit more,” she said, 
with tremendous relief in her tones. “ I’ll tell 
you what to do. If your stepmother treats 
you mean, just you write a letter to father. 
He always looks after little girls and he’ll come 
right up and take you away and give you back 
to your grandmother.” Peggy had heard from 
more than one grateful patient that Doctor 
Clayton could do ayiything. 


20 


Peggy’s trial. 


Cora May’s aunt, too, whom she had been 
visiting, often said that Doctor Clayton was the 
only man she would always trust. Cora May 
was therefore quite sure he could save her from 
her stepmother if he chose. Now that Peggy 
promised he should choose, she began to feel 
that she might go home with less terror. 

A few minutes after, the doctor himself came 
out to the orchard. Seeing the traces of tears 
still on Cora’s face, he picked her up and put 
her on his shoulder. 

“Well, Ladybird,” he said, “are we in the 
lovely October weather or is it cold, rainy 
November ” 

Cora May didn’t quite understand, but Peggy 
knew her father’s ways. 

“Daddy!” She slipped her hand confid- 
ingly into his. “ Daddy ” was the name with 
which she always cajoled him. “ If Cora May’s 
ever in great trouble, you’ll get her out, won’t 
you .? ” 

Doctor Clayton looked at the little special 
pleader with a twinkle in his eyes. 

“If Cora May,” he answered, at the same 
time holding that young lady straight up in the 
air and shaking his head at her forlorn face, “ if 


CORA MAY S TROUBLE. 


21 


Cora May needs me and there isn’t any one 
else to help her, I’ll pack my grip for the next 
train and be there to right her wrongs as fast 
as steam can take me.” 

“ There ! ” said Peggy, beaming. Now, 
Cora, you see ! When Daddy says he’ll do 
a thing, the biggest ogre you ever heard of can’t 
stop him.” 

Doctor Clayton laughed. “ Some people call 
that obstinacy. Peg. I’m glad you see it’s only 
a proper defiance of ogres.” 

“ Nurse,” said Peggy that night as she 
was undressing, “ are stepmothers always 
horrid.?” * 

Nurse was just then having too bad a time 
with Ted to answer. He had run down-stairs 
in his pajamas and brought up Peggy’s big 
hoop. With this clasped in both hands he 
was shouting at the top of his lungs and make- 
ing flying circus-leaps in and out of the nursery 
and up and down the hall. 

Twice Nurse had caught him and put him 
back to bed to no purpose. Each time before 
she could hide the hoop he had scrambled out 
and jerked it away. Doctor Clayton had given 
strict orders that all whippings were to be left 


22 


PEGGY'S TRIAL. 


to him. He was not at home, and the nurse 
was, consequently, at her wits’ end. 

“Ted,” she cried, angrily, as she caught him 
once more and shook him pretty severely, “ I 



shall report this to your father, and he won’t 
let you drive with him to Scranton to-morrow.” 

That sobered Ted a little. 

“You’re a mean, cross thing,” he grumbled, 
drawing the bedclothes sulkily over his shoul- 
ders. “ You don’t think anybody ought to have 


CORA may’s trouble. 


23 


any fun. I’m just glad you weren’t here this 
afternoon. Miss Barton is a thousand million 
times nicer’n you. She s got some sense.” 
And he flopped over disgustedly on to the 
other side. 

Now Nurse in some ways was not very wise. 
But she had done the best she knew during the 
six years since Mrs. Clayton’s death. It hurt 
her feelings greatly, therefore, to be so little 
appreciated by the children she really loved. 
It was partly because of this feeling that, when 
Peggy repeated her question, she answered as 
she did. 

“Stepmothers horrid.^” she sniffed. “I 
guess you’d find they were if you had one. 
You wouldn’t be able to bamboozle her as you 
do me, now, I tell you. I never knew one yet 
that didn’t hate her husband’s children. Gen- 
erally she succeeds in making him hate them, 
too. I guess you’d wish you had your poor 
tormented nurse back.” 

Peggy’s heart sank as she thought of Cora 
May. Then her invincible faith in her father’s 
powers returned, and she went to sleep sure 
that he would take care of her little friend. 


CHAPTER IV. 


TPIE NEW PUPIL. 

A SHORT time after this the doctor told 
Peggy that he had just heard that Cora May’s 
father and new mother had decided to stay 
abroad till Christmas. That meant that Cora 
was to be left at her grandmother’s for at least 
three months more. 

Something that wasn’t going to happen for 
three long months seemed to Peggy too far 
ahead to worry about. Besides, just now she 
had more than enough matters of her own to 
think about. 

In the first place, Miss PMith Barton was 
going to leave town within a few days for a 
long visit. Peggy, consequently, spent most of 
her out-of-school time haunting that lady’s house. 
The fact that her own lessons were often, there- 
fore, very insufficiently prepared, was to her 
mind of slight matter ! That she might also 

24 


THE NEW PUPIL. 


25 


occasionally be in Miss Barton’s way never once 
occurred to her. And Miss Barton, in spite of 
letters and errands and packing, never hinted to 
her little admirer that she would be glad of 
more uninterrupted time. 

Meanwhile, in her absorption, Peggy never 
noticed the excitement that was spreading 
among her classmates. 

“Peggy, come here,” called Lena Brooks, the 
morning after Miss Barton’s departure. “ Don’t 
you think it’s a mean shame, too ? ” 

“What’s a .mean shame.?” asked Peggy, 
joining the group at the foot of the stairs. 

“ Why, about that Baker girl coming to our 
school.” 

“ Who’s the Baker girl .? ” puzzled Peggy, 
“and why shouldn’t she come to school.?” 

“ Where have you been the last week .? ” ex- 
claimed Hattie Harner. “ Haven’t you seen 
that curly-headed beggar Miss Shepard put 
into our class .? ” 

Peggy’s face was still a blank. 

“ Goodness gracious ! ” Lena’s tone was 
scornful. “ If I were you I wouldn’t be so 
wrapped up in Miss Barton that I didn’t know 
if I was living or not. The Baker girl,” she 


26 


Peggy’s trial. . 


went on explaining, “ is that little dowdy who’s 
got Jane Miller’s old seat.” 

“ Oh ! ” Peggy comprehended at last. “ I 
remember now that Miss Shepard did give a 
new girl that place. She had awfully pretty 
black curls, too. What’s the matter with her, 
anyway ? ” 

“ Matter ! ” sneered Brownie Campbell, whose 
father owned the big cotton mills, and was sup- 
posed to be the richest man in town. “ There’s 
matter enough. She and her mother have just 
come from nobody knows where, and they have 
taken that hovel at the end of Walroth’s pas- 
ture.” 

‘^’Tisn’t a hovel,” said Peggy, indignantly. 
“ It’s a very good little house. I heard father 
say so only last week.” 

Brownie Campbell and Peggy Clayton never 
did agree. Peggy said Brownie put on airs be- 
cause her father had a lot of money. Brownie 
for her part didn’t see why Peggy should be so 
stuck up just because her father was a doctor ! 

Never mind whether it’s a hovel or not,” 
put in Lena Brooks, impatiently. ‘‘They are 
as poor as last year’s potatoes, and nobody 
knows who they are ; and mother saw Mrs. 


THE NEW PUPIL. 


27 


Baker hanging out washing. And I think it’s 
a shame to put a washerwoman’s daughter into 
our class. Why didn’t she go to the Cheswick 
School with the mill people’s children ? ” 

“Sh’sh,” said Annie Rice. “There she 
comes.” 

Peggy turned and gazed curiously. The 
others pretended to be much occupied with 
their companions and not to see the tiny dark 
girl just entering the door. 

Her big brown eyes flashed one timid look at 
the knot of girls whispering and laughing to- 
gether. A deep flush spread over her cheeks. 
With a little defiant toss of her black curls she 
went up-stairs without another glance. 

“ Who’s she in black for ? ” asked Peggy as 
she disappeared. 

Nobody knew, and just then the session bell 
rang and they all hurried to their classes. 

“You watch the airs she puts on when she 
answers a question somebody misses,” whis- 
pered Annie Rice as she and Peggy took their 
seats together. 

That morning Peggy had plenty of chance 
for watching. She had got so far behind in her 
lessons that she failed in pretty nearly every- 


28 


Peggy’s trial. 


thing. It so happened that the newcomer was 
called upon to correct many of her mistakes. 

Peggy was never the most brilliant scholar in 
her class. She was generally too much inter- 
ested in things outside to give enough time to 
her studies. But such total failure as she made 
to-day was entirely unusual. It was especially 
exasperating to have this washerwoman’s daugh- 
ter prove herself so much better a student. 

At the first recess Lena seized Peggy’s arm 
excitedly. 

“ There now ! ” she cried. Did you see how 
the little beggar gloated at your mistakes } ” 

Peggy was cross and sore over her errors, 
but she made an effort to be fair. 

“Well,” she said, “of course there wasn’t any 
reason she should pretend not to know the an- 
swers when she did.” 

“ Maybe not.” Lena looked as if there was 
some question even about that. “ But she 
needn’t have laughed fit to kill herself when 
you said a third of twenty was seven and a 
quarter, need she ? ” 

“ Did she do that .? ” Peggy’s cheeks flushed 
angrily. 

“ Yes, she did. And she’s watching all the 


THE NEW PUPIL. 


29 


time to show everybody how much she knows.” 

“Why doesn’t she go into a higher class, if 
she’s so learned.?” asked Peggy, with all the 
sarcasm her ten years could supply. 

It was a new experience for her. Doctor 
Clayton’s daughter, to be laughed at. She no 
longer felt in the least like taking sides with 
black-eyed, black-robed, Elsie Baker. 

“ Girls ! ” she called out a few minutes later. 
“ Let’s go chestnutting this afternoon. There 
are some loaded trees up near Halton’s brook.” 

“ But isn’t that right near his field where he’s 
got that ugly cow.?” Annie Rice would have 
been afraid of a pet lamb if it was not securely 
tied. 

The rest of the girls hooted. 

“ Supposing the field is near,” said Brownie 
Campbell. “ Cows don’t waltz over stone walls, 
do they .? We’ll see you don’t get eaten up,” 
she added, derisively. 

None of them paid any attention to the little 
black-robed figure sitting disconsolately alone 
on the window-sill. Peggy had suggested the 
excursion because she knew Elsie must feel 
that she was purposely left out. The others 
never even once thought of her. 


30 


PEGGY S TRIAL. 


I s’pose,” she said to Lena, as they started 
with their baskets that afternoon, “ I s’pose Miss 
Barton would say we ought to treat her better. 
But I’m not going to be laughed at, without 
doing a thing back, so now.” Peggy’s conscience 
was not quite at ease about the matter. 

“Well,” said Lena, “ I heard mother say that 
Mrs. Chisholm called on Mrs. Baker the other 
day, to see if she’d like to take in some wash- 
ing. She did it out of kindness ’cause she 
thought it might help her out. And she be- 
haved awfully to Mrs. Chisholm. She couldn’t 
have put on more airs if she’d been living in the 
biggest house in town. Mother said after that 
she couldn’t expect to be treated well, or her 
daughter either.” 

Such a person, Peggy decided severely, didn't 
deserve consideration, and she wasted no more 
thoughts on the neglected Elsie. 

The chestnuts were so thick that they had 
their baskets full in no time. As they started 
slowly for home, Peggy announced her intention 
of going by the way of Halton’s field. 

“It will bring me out nearer the store,” she 
explained, “and I’ve got to get some pencils for 
to-morrow.” 


THE NEW PUPIL. 


31 


“ But that ugly cow’s there,” exclaimed Annie 
Rice, in terror. 

“I don’t think she is,” said Peggy. “I’m 
pretty sure Mr. Halton has shut her up in his 
barn. And, anyway, I can keep along by the 
stone wall on this side and not cross over till I 
get to the next field.” 

None of the rest wanted to go that way, and 
so she finally started out alone. 

“ Be sure to keep this side the wall, if the 
cow’s there,” called Lena after her. 

“ And you’d better take off that red cape, too, 
if you see her,” added Annie Riee. “ She hates 
red, they say, as much as a mad bull.” 

Peggy wasn’t afraid of any kind of an animal. 
Or of anything else, her father often thought 
with a proud chuckle. To tell the truth, she 
was somewhat vain of her own courage, so now 
she waved her red cape fearlessly. To herself 
she said that she wouldn’t be such a ’fraidcat 
as Annie Rice for all the world ! 


CHAPTER V. 


A RACE FOR LIFE. 

When she got to the field, she looked over 
the wall searchingly. There, sure enough, away 
at the other end, browsing, with head down, was 
the cow. 

“Now,” thought Peggy, in disgust, “it will 
take twice as long to keep on this side of the 
wall. I could cut across diagonally and save 
more’n half the distance.” 

She eyed the big red creature impatiently. 

“She’s back to,” she reasoned, “and she’s 
eating so fast she’ll never notice me ’way on this 
side, at all. I don’t believe she’s so bad, any- 
way,” she concluded. 

With which she climbed the wall and let her- 
self carefully down into the pasture. Madame, 
the cow, was still oblivious, eating away quite as 
if no red-caped little girl was scurrying over her 
32 


A RACE FOR LIFE. 


33 


domains. Peggy had gone nearly half the dis- 
tance and still the cow had not seen her, or 
seeing, had taken no notice. 

“ I don’t believe she’s bad at all," murmured 
Peggy, with conviction. “ Most likely the rea- 
son she tossed Johnny Ryan over her head was 
because he threw stones at her. Animals,” 
said this fearless young person to herself, with 
a virtuous air, “ ought to be treated as well as 
people.” 

Just at that moment, right out of a clear sky, 
without a breath of warning, a tremendous wave 
of wind struck across the field. Its suddenness 
almost knocked Peggy over. Her cape flew 
out and shook tempestuously about her. She 
had hard work to keep it from covering her 
face with its shaking folds. 

As she stopped and tried to straighten it out, 
she heard something that sounded like a low 
mutter of thunder. Half unconsciously she 
turned, and there, in the far corner, stood the 
cow, now facing her way. Her head was down, 
her tail angrily lashing from side to side. Peggy 
was not sure whether the animal’s rage was 
directed against her or against the tempest of 
wind that had so unexpectedly arisen. 


34 


Peggy’s trial. 


In any case, the fury of the beast was so 
plainly shown that even Peggy’s stout heart felt 
a big throb of terror. Drawing the cape about 
her as well as she could, she started on a run. 
The wind, fortunately, was coming from a side 
that aided rather than hindered her speed. 

Before she had gone more than a few rods, 
again sounded the low, thundering roll. She 
turned to look, without stopping, and she had 
cause indeed for fear. There was no doubt now, 
about the cow. With head still down, she was 
stalking over, straight after the flying child. As 
yet she was taking the chase rather slowly. 
But Peggy knew in one frightened glance that 
even at that rate she would certainly overtake 
her before she could reach the wall. 

Straining every muscle, the child leaped 
ahead, running as swift and sure as all her 
tom-boy training had taught her. Once more a 
hasty look back. Horror upon horrors ! The 
big beast was no longer lounging over the field. 
Tail straight out behind, she was pitching along 
at what seemed a steam-train rate of speed. 
Already, Peggy thought, she could see two 
blood-red eyes shining from the lowered head. 

“ Father ! Father ! ” she screamed, at the top 


A RACE FOR LIFE. 


35 


of her frightened voice, but still keeping enough 
sense never to stop her pace. 

Even as she ran and shouted, she knew that 
there was no chance for her father or any one 
else to hear her. The pasture was too far from 
any house, and the road only struck it at one 
corner, — the corner she was making such 
desperate attempts to reach. 

Just then, “Drop your cape, drop your cape 
quick ! ” The voice came from behind. 

Peggy turned. There, running along on the 
very top of the side wall, at imminent risk it 
would seem of breaking her neck, was Elsie 
Baker. As she ran and shouted she was vigor- 
ously shaking something in the air. 

“ Drop your cape ! ” she screamed again. 

Peggy at last comprehended. With a jerk, 
she undid the hook at the neck, and flung the 
red, flaming cloth as far behind as she could 
without actually stopping. 

In almost no time, while Peggy had hardly 
made a rod’s gain, the furious cow, with a 
roar that shook the air, had reached the cape. 
Within a minute she had torn it into a thousand 
bits. 

Then, throwing up her head with another 


36 


Peggy’s trial. 


bellow, she started once more after the little 
figure, now not far from the wall of safety. 
Altogether too far, however, for her to hope to 
reach it before the stamping beast. 

“Hi, hi! Yah! yah!” at that moment 
shrieked shrill and piercing over on the right. 

The cow hesitated half a second. What was 
that flaunting, wicked red thing waving up and 
down the wall over there ? 

“ Hi ! Yi ! Hi! Yi ! ” came from the figure 
tossing the big bandanna square. 

The cow stopped one moment in indecision. 
The girl she had been chasing was so near it 
would be a matter of only a very few big lunges 
to catch her. That ugly red flag was farther 
away. 

But “ Hi, there ! Yi, yi, yi ! ” screamed the 
voice, with all the power the young lungs could 
employ. 

That finished it for Mrs. Cow. With a shake 
of her wicked head, and another big roar, she 
turned and bounded for the wall. 

Peggy, meanwhile, flew on, panting and 
breathless, with her strength going fast. She 
was dimly conscious that the heavy thuds no 
longer sounded so near. It was not, however. 



SHE STARTED ONCE MORE AFTER THE LITTLE FIGURE, 




A RACE FOR LIFE. 


39 


till, with a gasping sob, she reached the wall, 
and with a last desperate effort climbed to the 
top, that she saw what had happened. 

Over on the side wall Elsie Baker was stand- 
ing, waving the red bandanna kerchief and shout- 
ing wildly. As Peggy looked, her blood almost 
congealed with terror. P'or there, not ten feet 
away, was the maddened cow. To Peggy’s eyes 
it looked as if she would at the instant leap to 
the very top of the wall. Not one word could 
she make her parched, strained lips utter. In 
a very agony of terror she watched, her hands 
clasped, her eyes bulging. 

And then, just as the animal seemed really 
about to make a huge vault for the red rag, 
Elsie, with one twist, sent it straight into the 
burning, furious eyes. Before the beast had 
shaken it off in a transport of rage, and stamped 
it beneath her feet, the little black-robed figure 
had slipped down to the other side. 

When the cow raised her head there was 
nothing left for her to wreak her wrath upon 
except some flying bits of bright red rags. 


CHAPTER VI. 


FRIENDS FOR EVER. 

Elsie came around the corner of the wall, 
and there she found Peggy lying on the grass, 
sobbing as if her heart would break. P'or a 
minute Elsie stood by, bashfully. 

“You — you aren’t hurt, are you ” she 
finally asked, timidly. 

Peggy jumped to her feet, wiping her eyes 
on her sleeve. 

“Yes, I am,” she jerked out, between sobs. 
“ Pm hurt all inside.” 

“Oh, dear!” said Elsie, anxiously, “I didn’t 
see you tumble.” 

“ Neither I did.” Peggy pulled out a very 
soiled handkerchief, and mopped up her face. 
“Pm hurt inside because you saved my life, 
I guess.” 

Elsie opened her eyes and stared, not under- 
standing. 


40 


FRIENDS FOR EVER. 


41 


Peggy marched up to her bravely. “ Would 
you mind shaking hands with me ” 

Elsie flushed a little, and shook the grimy 
fist softly. 

“ 1 treated you mighty mean,” said Peggy, 
humbly, “and you’ve had a horrid time at 
school. And I was just as bad or worse’ n 
anybody, and yet — you saved my life.” 

Elsie looked decidedly uncomfortable. “ Oh, 
I don’t believe she’d have killed you ! ” 

“ If she hadn’t,” said Peggy, with decision, 
“ she’d have mangled me so I’d have had to 
have false arms and glass eyes and a wheel 
chair. And,” she added, with a gulp, “I 
guess when my father knows what you’ve 
done, well — he’ll — well, I don’t know what 
he’ll do. But he’ll surely give you the biggest 
kiss you ever got.” 

Elsie flushed again, and said something about 
“ she’d have to go now.” 

Peggy went up to her and put her arm about 
her waist. 

“ May I,” she asked, rather shamefacedly, 
“ may I go home with you } ” 

Elsie looked much astonished, but nodded 
silently, and the two started off, at first without 


42 


Peggy’s trial. 


a word. Peggy, however, was quite unused to 
keeping her tongue still for any length of time. 

“ How’d you know what to do with that 
cow ” she began. 

‘‘Why, I’ve always heard red makes bulls 
mad,” explained Elsie, “and when I saw the 
way your cape was flying I was sure that was 
what made her so crazy.” 

“ How did you happen to be there, though,” 
questioned Peggy, curiously, “ and how did you 
happen to have that red handkerchief ? ” 

Elsie flushed again. 

“I — I — heard you say you were going for 
chestnuts, and I thought I’d see where you 
went so I could get some for mother after you’d 
gone. And I couldn’t find a basket, so I took 
the bandanna to put ’em in.” 

Peggy’s face turned redder still, and then 
suddenly she looked down. 

“ Did you ever ! ” she exclaimed ; “if I 
haven’t got my basket of chestnuts yet ! And 
it’s most full. To think,” she fairly doubled 
up with laughter, “to think I held on to that 
old thing all the time I was running away, and 
didn’t even drop it when I climbed the wall ! 
Did you ever see anything so funny ? ” 


FRIENDS FOR EVER. 


43 


The two laughed and laughed, till all their 
mutual shyness was worn off, and they trotted 
the rest of the way home, talking like old 
friends. 

By the time they reached the little cottage 
which Brownie called a hovel, Peggy had 
learned that Elsie’s father had died only a 
few months ago, and that she and her mother 
had moved to Perrytown from New York 
City. 

“And I guess,” said Elsie, mournfully, “that 
we are awfully poor. For, before we left New 
York, somebody came and took all mamma’s 
lovely clothes and all my nice dresses. I asked 
her why they did, and she said we shouldn’t 
want such things in a little country town, 
and that we needed the money. And since 
we’ve been here we haven’t had any servants. 
Mamma,” she choked a little as she said this, 
“Mamma has even done her own washing.” 

Peggy thought of Mrs. Chisholm’s call on 
Mrs. Baker, and she felt as if she would like to 
give that lady a shaking. 

She felt so still more after she had seen Mrs. 
Baker. For ten-year old Peggy would as soon 
have thought of asking a queen with a diamond 


44 


pf^ggy’s trial. 


crown to turn into a scrub-woman as to ask it 
of this lovely dark-eyed lady. 

When Peggy told her what had happened, 
Mrs. Baker’s eyes grew big with fright, and she 
drew Elsie to her with a shudder. 

Oh, my dearie ! ” she said, “ supposing you 
had fallen off the wall into the pasture with 
the cow ! ” 

“ Pooh ! ” P^lsie waved away any such idea 
with scorn. “ Guess all my gymnasium prac- 
tice wasn’t going back, on me that way.” 

That night Peggy told her father the whole 
story. She never forgot his face or his tones 
when he heard how the girls had treated Elsie 
just because she was poor. 

“ My daughter a snob, too ! ” was all Doctor 
Clayton said, but Peggy felt that any punish- 
ment would have been easier to bear. 

Then, when she went on and told him of her 
mad race across the pasture, the colour all went 
out of his face, and he picked her up in his 
arms and held her close without saying a word. 

“ Did you ever know such a brave girl as 
Elsie ? ” finished Peggy, in triumph. “ And zvJiat 
can we do to pay her t ” 

“She’s not only brave,” said Doctor Clayton, 


FRIENDS FOR EVER. 


45 


somewhat huskily, “but she has the steadiest 
and quickest of brains. She ought to make a 
wonderful woman, Peggy, and it is our place 
to give her the chance to do her best. And no 
matter what we do, we shall always owe her 
more than we can ever pay.” 

At school the next day Peggy took her class 
into an empty room and told them of yesterday’s 
happening. 

“Now,” she wound up, excitedly, “I don’t 
know what yoii re going to do, but I tell you 
this, Elsie Baker is my friend for ever if she’ll 
have me. And any girl that treats her mean 
needn’t be nice to me. Mrs. Baker, too, is the 
sweetest lady you ever saw, and I don’t think 
much of anybody who’d go there and ask her 
to take in ivashmg. So now ! ” 

Luckily the Mrs. Chisholm who had done this 
deed had no children. Consequently Peggy’s 
sweeping remarks did not create the rumpus 
they otherwise might have done. Instead, the 
girls looked at each other a little sheepishly, till 
suddenly Lena Brooks rose to the occasion with 
much good sense. 

“ Girls ! ” She jumped on to a chair and waved 
her arms over their heads. “ We’ve been a pack 


46 


PEGGY’S TRIAL. 


of silly geese and I guess we’re all ashamed. 
Now, then ! Let’s give three cheers for Elsie 
Baker.” 

The cheers were given with all the good-will 
in the world. When Elsie came in a few min- 
utes later, though there were no verbal apol- 
ogies, she found herself no longer the little 
outcast of the day before. 

It was the beginning of a new and better 
time for both Elsie and her mother. When 
Doctor Clayton called on Mrs. Baker to tell 
her how he and Peggy owed her little girl more 
than they could ever repay, he discovered several 
things. First, that Peggy was quite right in her 
estimate of Elsie’s mother. Next, that he had 
once slightly known Mr. Baker. He remem- 
bered also how it was reported that his failure 
in business just before he died was entirely due 
to a dishonest partner. 

That set Doctor Clayton to thinking. The 
result was that several months later he suc- 
ceeded in making the partner hand over to Mrs. 
Baker a certain amount of money, — enough, at 
least, so that she was pretty sure of never again 
being in such desperate circumstances as when 
she came to Perrytown and took the “hovel.” 


FRIENDS FOR EVER. 


47 


Some weeks ahead of this, however, she had 
accepted a position. Through the doctor’s 
efforts she was to be French and German 
teacher in a noted school in Scranton. She 
was not now of course absolutely obliged to do 
this work. The regular occupation, however, 
was the best panacea she could find for her 
loneliness. So she decided to keep the place 
for at least a year. 

Thus she and Elsie left Perrytown before 
Christmas. The two children had grown to be 
such friends that Peggy felt as if she were los- 
ing a dear sister. But Mrs. Baker’s last words 
comforted her a little. 

“You know, my dear,” she said, “that, now 
there is always another home for you in Scran- 
ton. Whenever your father can spare you, you 
iniist come to us.” 


CHAPTER VIL 


A HINT OF DREADFUL TROUBLE, 

It was some weeks after the Rakers’ depar- 
ture, and Peggy was not having a very good 
time. 

She missed Pilsie for one thing, and then, for 
some unknown reason. Miss Barton had not yet 
got back. 

That meant that a Miss Garland was still 
teaching the Sunday school class. And Miss 
Garland never gave the nice little mid-week 
parties that Miss Barton 'used to give. Miss 
Garland, too, never once came in between times 
and took Peggy and the two boys on excursions 
or brought them games. 

Miss Garland, in fact, seemed to take very 
little interest in Peggy, and none at all in Teddy 
and Harry. Privately, Peggy thought her a very 
poor sort of a lady indeed. The only reason 

48 


A HINT OF DREADFUL TROUBLE. 


49 


she failed to make her conviction more decidedly 
public was that the despised person was a friend 
of Miss Barton. 

Ted and Harry felt no such scruples about 
expressing their opinions. Harry had even been 
known to stick out his tongue at the back of 
Miss Barton’s successor. 

About this time also the children were thor- 
oughly agreed that Nurse was getting too 
“pudgiky” for toleration. That they them- 
selves were on a naughty streak, did not occur 
to them. 

“Why ! ” said Ted one day with wrath, “she 
won’t let a fellow do anj/thing. Yesterday I had 
Jimmie Haynes up in the attic and we were just 
playing ; and she kept calling for us to come 
down. And of course I wasn’t going to 
come down for nothing. And then she came 
up, and she took me by the ear and she most 
chucked me down-stairs.” 

Ted was standing in front of the nursery 
fireplace as he spoke. His short legs were 
spread far apart and his hands were tucked 
behind him under his diminutive coat-tails. It 
was an attitude he much admired in his father, 
and he copied it as often as he had a chance. 


50 


PEGGY S TRIAL. 



What were you doing in the attic ? ” ques- 
tioned Peggy, suspiciously. 

“ Doing.?” Ted looked as innocent as a six 
months old baby. “ Nothing ! I was on the 
rocking-horse and Jamie had on his roller 
skates and was just skating along dragging 


me and the horse after him. Nurse said we’d 
knock down the ceiling if we didn’t stop. 
Guess if the whole house didn’t come down 
in last year’s tornado, that little racket wouldn’t 
pull down a ceiling.” 

Peggy thought that was not bad reasoning, 
but she was a whole year older than Ted, and 


A HINT OF DREADFUL TROUBLE. $1 

she felt that she ought to be on the side of 
discipline. 

“ Well, you know father told us we mustn’t 
jump round up there as if we were outdoors.” 

“Wasn’t jumping!” said Ted, indignantly. 
“And Jamie said ’twas just as easy skating as 
if he’d been in the rink.” 

Peggy’s curiosity got the better of her mor- 
alising. “ How did he ever pull you along 
on the horse ? ” 

“ Oh, we had it fixed in great shape,” ex- 
plained Ted, enthusiastically. “You see, we 
took my skates and Harry’s, and we fastened 
’em under the stand of the horse, two at each 
corner. Tied ’em on with strings. Of course, 
every little while they’d come off, and then we’d 
go slump I But it was easy as pie and great 
fun ! ” 

“ There ! ” Harry had been cutting out 
puzzles in the other corner of the room, but 
now he came up in much excitement. “ That’s 
how my skate got its front wheels broken. 
You can just give me yours to pay up.” 

“ Well, I guess not ! ” Ted swelled up like 
a turkey-cock. “’Twasn’t I smashed ’em, nor 
Jamie either. You can make Nurse get you 


52 


Peggy’s trial. 


a new pair. She’s the one busted ’em. She 
grabbed the rocking-horse, and she switched it 
round so, trying to get me off, that the skates 
hit a trunk and got a piece knocked off. You 
needn’t be blaming me.” 

Harry’s blue eyes filled with tears and his 
mouth took a tremendous downward slant. 
“ You shall give me yours,” he sputtered. 

It’s your fault if Nurse did break ’em. You 
know she won’t get me a new pair.” 

“Well, you can go without ’em, then,” said 
Teddy, heartlessly, “/didn’t want her to come 
banging me round, did 1 1 I didn’t tell her to 
break those wheels.” 

Harry’s eyes blazed with fury and ran over 
with tears at the same time. “You’re a 
bad, wicked boy,” he stormed, “and I hate 
you.” 

With a sudden fury he pounced on his 
brother and began beating him with both his 
clenched fists. 

Before Ted could defend himself Peggy was 
between the two trying to separate them. By 
this time both of them were so excited that 
they hardly knew what they were about or 
whether they hit each other or Peggy. 


A HINT OF DREADFUL TROUBLE. 


53 


You are naughty boys,” she cried, still val- 
iantly trying to act as guardian of the peace. 

Just then Nurse came into the room, and see- 
ing what she thought was a three-sided fight, 
she swooped down on the trio remorselessly. 

“ Were ever three such young ones born into 
the world ? ” she scolded, as she shook and 
parted them. 

“ You needn’t be blaming me ! ” expostulated 
Peggy, smoothing down her dress. “/ wasn’t 
doing a thing.” 

That seemed like the biggest kind of a fib to 
Nurse. I guess I can see with my own eyes,” 
she retorted. “ And I guess your father’ll have 
something to say when I tell him. Now you, 
Teddy and Harry,” she took each firmly by an 
arm, “you’ll both of you go straight to bed 
this minute, and you’ll stay there till to-morrow 
morning.” 

Telling Peggy to wait in the nursery, she 
marched the two boys out of the room without 
allowing them a word of explanation. 

“Oh, dear!” said Peggy, ruefully. “Now 
she’ll go and tell father, and he’ll think Pm 
a wicked girl, and 1 can’t ever make him under- 
stand,” As she thought of all the conse- 


54 


PEGGY S TRIAL. 


quences her wrath grew, and by the time 
Nurse came back she was in a towering rage. 

“ I’ll tell you what I think,” she burst out as 
the old servant reentered, “ I think you are an 
unfair, mean woman. You won’t listen to any- 
thing anybody can say, and you just go and 
repeat everything to father and — and — oh ! ” 
she stamped her foot angrily, ‘‘you’re just 
horrid^ so now ! ” 

Peggy did not know that Nurse was tired out 
and half-sick. Nor did she realise that six con- 
secutive years with three lively children are apt 
to wear out the strongest of nerves. Neither 
did she know that a certain piece of village 
gossip was rankling in what was after all a very 
faithful-hearted nurse. Least of all did she guess 
that this same heart the very moment before 
had been feeling very sorry for Peggy herself. 

At this sudden onslaught. Nurse’s pity gave 
way to anger. 

“You are a saucy girl,” she said, bitterly. 
“Saucy and ungrateful. You don’t remember 
how I’ve taken care of you all these years. 
Nor how I saved your life when you had the 
scarlet fever. You don’t care for anything ex- 
cept to do just as you please. But I can tell 


A HINT OF DREADFUL TROUBLE. 55 

you one thing, Miss Peggy Clayton, your day 
is most over. I guess you’ll find the difference 
when your stepmother comes. I guess you 
won’t have quite such an easy time then.” 

At the word “stepmother ” all Peggy’s colour 
fled from her face. She stood gasping and white, 
staring at Nurse in horror. Then she pulled 
herself up in fine scorn. 

“You are just saying that,” she said, indig- 
nantly. “You knoiv my father wouldn’t marry 
again.” 

“ Huh ! ” Nurse’s own racked feelings were 
glad of a chance to vent themselves. “ I guess 
I don’t know any such thing. Your father is 
going to be married inside of a month. He’s 
been calling on her night after night, in Carver. 
And Pm glad somebody else’s going to have the 
training of you. By this time next year I guess 
you’ll wish you had your old nurse back.” With 
a sniff and a choke she left the room. 

For several minutes after she had gone, Peggy 
stood motionless. Suddenly she dropped on to 
the floor by the couch and buried her face in 
the cushions. 

“ Mother ! Mother ! ” she sobbed, her little 
frame shaking with anguish. “Oh ! it can’t be 


56 


PEGGY S TRIAL. 


true ! it can’t be ! There can’t any one come 
to take your place. Father wouldn’t let ’em, I 
know he wouldn’t.” 




But her words did not convince herself. She 
knew that Nurse never lied, and the only chance 
was that there was some mistake. 

‘‘ I know what it is” she said to herself, at 


A HINT OF DREADFUL TROUBLE. 


57 


length, drying her eyes and looking a little com- 
forted. “ Daddy’s been visiting some sick lady 
for a long time, and they think he is going to 
marry her. It’s just people’s talk ! It isn’t 
true, I know it isn’t.” 

This seemed a reasonable explanation, both 
of her father’s unusual absences and of the town 
gossip. For a few days she believed it, or per- 
suaded herself that she believed it. Yet, really, 
she was always half expecting to hear that, after 
all. Nurse was right. 

She bore, meanwhile, such a quiet, strangely 
unchildlike air, that Nurse was almost abashed. 
She never once dared to say anything more 
about the matter, which was by now all over 
the town. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE TRIAL HAS COME. 

But one day Peggy overheard two of her 
teachers talking about her father and his wife 
to be. She could not catch the name of the 
future stepmother. But the evident certainty 
in the women’s minds and the things they said 
finally made the truth come home to her. Her 
father was to be married ; her own dear dead 
mother’s place was to be taken by some other 
woman. 

It was only the morning recess, but Peggy 
slipped out of the school yard. For the next 
two hours she hardly knew where she went. 

At first she was merely filled with a sense of 
the burning injustice that was being done to her 
mother. She could but just remember the tall 
stately lady who had died when Peggy was 
hardly five years old. But the memory meant 
58 


THE TRIAL HAS COME. 


59 


all that was most sweet and sacred in her short 
life. To think that that place was to be filled 
by some strange woman seemed more than she 
could bear. 

Soon, too, she began to remember all the 
horrible stories she had heard of stepmothers. 
They not only hated their stepchildren, accord- 
ing to Nurse, but they made fathers dislike their 
own children. Sometimes they even drove the 
poor little things out of the house. 

Peggy was in the woods half a mile from 
home, when all the terror of these thoughts 
came to her. She and the boys were to be 
scolded, beaten, and their dear father taught to 
hate them. 

Then she thought to herself remorsefully 
that she was wicked to believe he could ever 
turn against his little daughter and sons. But 
again she remembered what she had once heard 
N urse say to Sally : 

“There isn’t anything a wicked woman can’t 
make a man do.” 

And every one agreed that stepmothers were 
all bad beyond description. 

So there was no hope for it. Ted and Harry 
and she were to be outcasts, hated and scorned. 


6o 


Peggy’s trial. 


with a loving father turned into a very fiend of 
ferocity. 

Peggy’s irnagination was always one of her 
strong points. The pictures she conjured up 
now, of the horrible things that would happen, 
were so vivid and real that it almost seemed as 
if they were happening that minute. Down on 
the snow she dropped and big sobs shook her 
little body till the very well of tears had com- 
pletely dried up. Exhausted at length with the 
fury of her grief, she sat up, — a miserable heap 
of a girl. Her face was almost as white as the 
drifts of snow about her. Presently she began 
talking aloud to herself. 

“ Never any more father to love us. Nobody 
to put us to bed. Because of course she won’t 
let Nurse stay. Everybody hating us all the 
time. It will be just the same as if we were 
Babes in the Woods, only we won’t have any 
robins to cover us up with leaves. Most likely 
we’ll die of starvation, and nobody will care. 
Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! If we only hadn’t been born ! 
Or if only something could happen to us right 
off quick, so we needn’t stay here any more! ” 

She paused a minute and clasped her hands 
tightly together. 


THE TRIAL HAS COME. 


6l 


“Why,” she whispered, looking about fur- 
tively as if some one could hear her, “ why, we 
could go away ourselves ! Nobody wants us, — 
we’d better go. Mrs. Baker said she’d be glad to 
have me any time. I’m sure she would take 
the boys, too, when she heard about the step- 
mother. Most likely in a little while I could 
earn some money and take care of us all.” 

Peggy was not exactly sure how this could 
be done, but she had earned as much as two 
dollars in one season picking berries and selling 
them to her father. Consequently she believed 
she could easily get somethmg to do. Enough 
to pay their board at least ! 

There was no time to be lost ; she thought 
rapidly. No one seemed to know exactly when 
the stepmother was to arrive. Everybody 
appeared to think, however, that it would be 
soon. Perhaps by to-morrow. 

It was past noon now. Unless she hurried 
the boys would have finished luncheon and 
returned to school before she got home. 

To her relief, she found them still at the 
table. Both boys looked gloomy and sullen, 
but she was too full of her own thoughts to be 
curious about them. 


62 


PEGGY S TRIAL. 


As soon as the meal was over, however, Ted 
laid hold upon her. Before she had time to 
tell him the dreadful news, he and Harry had 
dragged her up to the nursery. 

“Nurse says we’ve got to go to bed again 
before supper,” began Teddy, viciously, kicking 
over a chair. 

“And ’tisn’t for a thing,'' interrupted Harry. 
“Just for nothing, except because she’s so ugly 
herself.” 

“That makes three suppers in a week,” 
continued Ted. “All for nothing, too. One 
thing,” he wagged his head triumphantly and 
unbuttoned his blouse, “ I wasn’t going to be 
hungry to-night.” 

As he spoke he pulled out a couple of slices 
of bread and butter, a big apple, and some 
cookies, mostly broken into crumbs. 

“I took something, too,” said Harry, draw- 
ing out a sticky wad of gingerbread, around 
which he had wrapped a piece of roast beef. 

Peggy’s eyes glowed victoriously. It was 
evident that the boys were in a frame of mind 
favourable for her scheme. 

“ What’s it all about, any way,” she asked. 

“I told you just nothing!” said Ted, 


THE TRIAL HAS COME. 


63 


promptly. “We got out early to-day ’cause 
Miss Green is sick, and we needn’t go back till 
to-morrow. So on our way home we stopped 
at the store. Harry hadn’t spent his allowance 
at all this week, and I had five cents left of 
mine. And Mr. Pratt, he had the greatest 
pistol you ever saw. You snapped it and it 
went off like a big firecracker, all without any 
kind of a cap. It made a most elegant noise, 
now I tell you. 

“ When we got home we went out and fired 
it at cook. She s got some sense. She just 
laughed and said, ‘ Phwat a foine craythure it is, 
to be sure.’ Then we crept up here, and 
Nurse was sitting by the window. She never 
heard us, and I pulled the trigger, and pop ! 
Oh, you ought to have seen her ! ” 

Teddy slapped his knees, and danced up and 
down in his glee. 

“ She jumped ’bout ten feet, and she got just 
zvhite. And then didn’t she scold ! Said we 
weren’t little gentlemen. That no nice boy 
would scare a woman. Just as if a toy pistol 
ought to scare anybody ! Well, we didn’t stay 
to hear all her talk. We went out to the hen- 
yard, and we — ” 


64 


PEGGY S TRIAL. 


He looked at Harry, and both boys chuckled 
with wicked delight. 

“Oh, let me tell,” said Harry. “Ted, he 
gave me the pistol, and we crawled up soft 
to those cochin-chinas Nurse got last week. 
Then, all of a sudden, he leaned over quick, and 
caught that fat, strutting rooster. And then, I 
banged with the pistol right side of Mr. Roost- 
er’s head. 

“And you never saw anything like it,” 
continued Harry. “ He gave the most awful 
squawk, and jerked away like two-forty. And, 
if you’ll believe it, he did jump right out of 
Ted’s hands ! But he left, oh, he left all his 
tail-feathers behind ! Ha ! ha ! ha ! ” 

The two graceless imps danced around the 
room shaking with laughter. 

Peggy thought it was a pretty good joke, too, 
though she knew perfectly well how dear to 
Nurse’s heart those cochin-chinas were. With 
them she had hoped to take a prize at the 
county fair. 

“ Well,” said Peggy, “ what happened then } ” 

The boys’ hilarity vanished. 

“She came out,” said Ted, in disgust, “and 
she snatched the pistol away. She says she’s 





“ ‘ HE GAVE THE MOST AWFUL SQUAWK 


1 


■t 




✓ 







THE TRIAL HAS COME. 


67 


going to burn it up. And she told us we’d 
have to go to bed without our supper. That’s 
all we’er punished for. Just nothing. Only 
a handful of old rooster feathers that will grow 
right out again.” 

Peggy looked solemnly at the two boys. 

“ Nurse treats us bad enough,” she said, im- 
pressively, “ and we keep getting punished for 
nothing. But we’re going to have a worse 
time yet. We’re going to have a stepmother ! ” 

Ted and Harry looked at her questioningly. 

“ What’s a stepmother ? ” asked Harry. 

“ She’s a bad, wicked woman who makes 
father think we’re horrid. She’ll turn Nurse 
away, and we won’t have even enough to eat.” 

Harry stood gazing with frightened eyes, 
but Ted sniffed rather contemptuously. 

“Huh! Stepmother just means a lady who 
marries father and comes here to live, and we 
call her mamma. / know, ’cause I had step- 
mother in my spelling-lesson, and Miss Green 
told me.” 

“ That’s all right,” said Peggy, severely, “ but 
that doesn’t say what kind of a woman she 
is, does it ? And I know she will be horrid. 
Nurse says they always whip and punish chil- 


68 


Peggy’s trial. 


clren, and make their own fathers hate ’em. 
Cora May said so, too, for her grandmother 
told her.” 

Here she remembered that Cora’s new mother 
must be home by now. She wondered why 
Cora hadn’t sent for Doctor Clayton to take 
her back to her grandmother. 

“ It’s just as well,” she thought, mournfully, 
“for he would probably side with the step- 
mother himself.” 

The boys looked miserable enough. 

“When’s the stepmother coming.?” asked 
Ted. 

“ I don’t know, but soon. Maybe to-mor- 
row.” Soon, to Peggy’s mind, could not mean 
a date much farther off. 

“Will she beat us just as soon as she 
comes .? ” Harry got nearer Peggy and held 
on to her dress. 

“Not if I know it,” said Peggy, with deter- 
mination. 

In the excitement of planning her campaign 
she had lost something of her own first terrible 
feelings. She spoke now like an already suc- 
cessful general. 

“ / am going to run away before she comes. 


THE TRIAL HAS COME. 69 

I’m going this very afternoon, and, if you want 
to, you can come with me.” 

“Where are you going.?” said Ted, in an 
awed whisper. 

“I’m going to Elsie Baker’s in Scranton. 
Mrs. Baker will be glad to have us, I know. 
She will keep us till I can earn enough money 
to support all of us.” 

Peggy’s tone of assurance was a wonderful 
thing to hear, but Ted was not quite satis- 
fied. 

“ Supposing father comes after us and takes 
us back home ? Then he’d whip us, sure, for 
running away.” 

Peggy shook her head impatiently. 

“ Don’t you see, he won’t want us to come 
back. Stepmother will make him hate us, and 
she’ll be so glad we are gone that he will be 
glad, too.” 

“Oh, dear!” Harry’s lip trembled. “I 
don’t want father to hate us. I don’t want any 
wicked old stepmother.” 

Peggy put her arms about him and kissed 
him. 

“ If we go away before she comes perhaps 
father will love us by and by. Maybe he will 


70 


Peggy’s trial. 


get tired of stepmother and send her off. Then 
we can come back.” 

She said this to comfort Harry. In her own 
mind she was quite sure that once in the power 
of a stepmother, even Doctor Clayton himself 
would be helpless. 


CHAPTER IX. 


RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME. 

Having thus impressed the boys, she easily 
persuaded them to go with her that very 
afternoon. 

Their first preparation was to break open 
their banks. Peggy took the coppers and sil- 
ver pieces and tied them up in a handkerchief, 
and put the handkerchief into the bottom of 
a small bag. 

“ I had two dollars and sixteen cents,” she 
said, “Ted a dollar and ninety-three cents, and 
Harry eighty-four cents. That is more than 
enough to pay our fare to Scranton, because 
tickets are only half a dollar.” 

On top of the money she put the pieces of 
luncheon the boys had saved, first done up, 
however, in a newspaper. 

Just as they were about ready to leave the 
71 


72 


Peggy’s trial. 


house, they heard their father drive up and 
the door slam after him, as he came hurrying 
in. Very quietly they slipped down the back 
stairs, where a whispered conversation took 
place in the hall. 

The boys wanted to go to the office to say 
good-bye. Peggy’s own heart was very full. 
She would have given anything for a kiss and 
hug from the father she adored. But she was 
afraid if they went in they could never get away. 
And then the stepmother would arrive, and all 
the awful things she had read and heard about 
would commence. She therefore prevailed upon 
the other two not to stop. 

“We’ll say good-bye to him through the 
window,” she said. 

Out of the door, around the porch, up the 
piazza steps they crept, and gazed through 
the long French window. Doctor Clayton 
was standing with his back to the fireplace 
reading a letter. Peggy looked till a blinding 
mist swept over her eyes. 

“ Good-bye, dear daddy,” she said, under her 
breath. 

She thought to herself that, if he could see 
the three faces peering at him so sorrowfully. 


RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME. 


73 


he would be tempted to give up the stepmother 
and keep his children. 

They were a decidedly subdued trio as they 



passed out of the front gate and turned into 
a side street. This led to the station, and they 
kept along for some time without saying a word. 
Ted was on one side of Peggy, and Harry on 


74 


Peggy’s trial. 


the other. Somehow, though usually they 
would have scorned such a proceeding, each 
held one of her hands. 

Is it very long to the station ? ” Harry’s 
voice had a suspicious tremor. 

“ Why, no,” said Peggy, briskly. It took an 
awful little while to go in the buggy the other 
day. Seems if we must be pretty near it now.” 

The truth was the Perrytown station was 
over two miles from Doctor Clayton’s house. 
As none of the children had ever walked there, 
they did not realise its distance. 

For a few minutes longer they walked on, no 
one saying anything. Then, without a word of 
warning, Harry suddenly dropped down on to 
the snow by the side of the fence, and began 
to cry bitterly. 

“ I’m not going away from father,” he sobbed. 
“ I don’t want to go to Mrs. Baker’s. I want 
to go home.” 

Peggy sat down beside him and took his 
hand. All her efforts to comfort and encour- 
age him had not the slightest effect. He 
wanted his father, he moaned, and he didn’t 
believe his father would let a stepmother treat 
him badly. 


RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME. 


75 


Here Teddy, who had been standing by in 
deep thought, swallowed hard twice. 

‘‘Peggy,” he said, slowly, without looking at 
her, “that’s just what / think. 1 don’t believe 
father will let anybody be mean to us. You 
know he doesn’t allow even Nurse to whip us. 
And when she puts us to bed — why” — he 
blushed shamefacedly — “I guess we need it. 
I’ve been thinking we aren’t always very nice 
to Nurse.” 

Peggy stood up and stared at them both, 
with a mixture of dread and anger in her eyes. 

“Do you mean you aren’t going with me, 
after all ” 

At that, Harry began to cry harder than 
ever. 

“Don’t you go and leave us, Peggy. Let’s 
all go home, and take care of each other.” 

There was deep scorn in Peggy’s voice as 
she answered. 

“ / 'm not a baby if you are. Fm not going 
to be beaten and banged and starved by any old 
stepmother. You needn’t think father will be 
able to prevent it, either,” she added. “ ’Tisn’t 
that he is mean, but he just can’t help himself, 
if a wicked woman makes him.” 


76 


Peggy’s trial. 


“ I don’t believe,” said Teddy, staunchly, 
“that my father will have anything to do with 
a wicked woman. If he does marry a step- 
mother, I don’t believe she will be so horrid.” 

“^/{ybody would be horrid,” wailed Peggy, 
“who would come and take oiir own dear 
mother’s place away from her.” 

But the boys had not the clear remembrance . 
of their mother that Peggy had. Thus this 
side of the case did not strike them as it did 
her. 

Besides, home was home and father was 
father. The possible future stepmother did 
not seem half so real and terrible as the loss 
of these two. And, also, the station was a long 
way off ! 

“Very well,” said Peggy, sternly, at length, 

“ you can go back if you want to. / shall keep 
straight on. If you want to leave me alone you 
can.” 

The boys begged and pleaded with her, but 
she resolutely refused to turn. Poor Harry 
cried as if his heart would break at the 
thought of leaving her. Perhaps, in the end, 
both boys might have gone with her. But 
suddenly Teddy had a bright thought. 


RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME. 77 

While Peggy was diving into the bottom of 
the bag for the roll of money, he whispered to 
Harry. 

“Don’t worry,” he said, “father will bring 
her back, sure. She will be home this very 
night, see if she isn’t.” 

“Here,” said Peggy, as she pulled out the 
handkerchief bundle, “here’s your money.” 

Neither boy would touch it. 

“You can send it to us,” said Ted, “if you 
don’t need it.” 

They were saving every penny for a camera 
and Peggy knew it. She was therefore much 
impressed by their generosity. Leaving her in 
the lurch seemed less heartless after that. 

Very slowly the two walked back, turning 
many times before they reached the bend 
that hid them from sight. By that time the 
cheeks of both boys were wet with- splashing 
tears. Only their faith that their father would 
come at once after Peggy, prevented them from 
joining her again. 

Meanwhile Peggy gazed after them till the 
big lump in her throat grew and grew. When 
the most desperate straining of eyes failed to 
see even so much as a bit of a familiar hat or 


78 


Peggy’s trial. 


coat-tail, she sank down on to the snow. She 
had kept very brave and firm before them. But 
now the lump in her throat seemed to have a 
string connected with the cords of her heart. 

The hurt of the pull was alone enough to 
make a body cry. That was the excuse this 
small girl made to herself as she finally wiped 
away the last of the salt water that was all over 
her face. 

Pretty soon, beginning to feel hungry, she ate 
some of Harry’s gingerbread. 

“Oh, dear! ” she said to herself in dismay as 
she took the last bite. “ I forgot to tell them 
not to let any one know where I am. Somebody 
will be sure to come for me before I can reach 
the station.” 

She remembered, however, that Nurse was to 
be out that afternoon. Also that the doctor 
usually did not come in much before tea. In 
that case she would be able to get to the 
train before any one started after her. Once 
in Scranton, she believed she would be safe. 

So she plodded on as fast as she could go. 
Every little while she heard a horse coming up 
the street. Each time she waited in terror lest 
it should be some one for her. But the few 


RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME. 


79 


sleighs that went jingling by held only strangers. 
No one noticed the little figure in the warm 
ulster with the bag and muff. 

By and by the houses got much farther apart. 
Then came an immense stretch of pasture land. 
This was the beginning of a farm that continued 
for an interminable space. Peggy had entirely 
forgotten this whole locality. 

The path seemed strangely wild and unfa- 
miliar to her, and she almost feared she had lost 
her way. Still, she felt very sure she had not 
passed any other road, so she kept bravely on. 

By this time she was getting sadly tired. Her 
long tramp in the morning, combined with the 
deep mental strain and excitement, were making 
this last pilgrimage altogether too much for her 
strength. It was cold, too, she thought, as she 
hugged her muff tighter. 

And what a wilderness of nothing but snow ! 
Wasn’t she ever going to see a house any more } 
And where, oh, where was that station } It 
seemed as if she must already have gone more 
than three times the distance. Ted and Harry, 
she thought, had got home long before this. 
Evidently they had found no one at the house. 

That, of course, was just what she hoped would 


8o 


Peggy’s trial. 


happen. Yet, queerly enough, it made her feel 
very forlorn and choky. 

“You are as big a baby as the boys,” she 
said to herself, in disgust. “ Have you forgotten 
stepmother ? ” 

The thought made her hasten her lagging 
footsteps. But how tired she was ! She found 
it harder and harder work to move her feet 
at all. 

Suddenly she realised that the daylight was 
all gone. The short winter twilight had com- 
menced, and soon now it would be night. So 
far as she could see there was nothing ahead of 
her. Nothing but wide white fields, broken here 
and there by a clump of bare brown bushes or 
a few tall naked trees. There was no place to 
rest. She could only keep on, hoping every 
minute that some turn would show the railroad 
station. 

For what seemed to her more than an hour 
she stumbled ahead, every step slower and 
more dragging than the one before. Presently 
she stopped, with a frightened gasp. There 
was no longer even any twilight. Night had 
already begun. 

Then Peggy’s brave heart failed her. For 


RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME. 


8l 


the first time she felt thoroughly frightened. 
She shuddered at each mound of snow and 
every dark shrub. All the demons and ogres 
and wicked sprites she had read of in fairy 
books seemed lurking on every side. She was 
mortally afraid to go ahead, and she was al- 
together too scared to go back. Just as the 
last bit of her strength was about gone, the 
road took an unexpected turn about a thick 
growth of trees. 

There, on the other side, was a big barn or 
shed. Peggy could see no house near, and 
there was nothing homelike or inviting in the 
big blank wall before her. To the cold, fright- 
ened, worn-out child, however, it was like a 
very haven of rest and safety. If only she 
could get in ! 

The big, sliding door was pulled to, and 
beyond her strength to open. Beside it, how- 
ever, was a small one,- and to her delight she 
found it unfastened. 

Once inside, the deep gloom and impene- 
trable corners were almost as fearsome as the 
night without. For a few minutes she stood 
hesitating, not daring to move. Gradually her 
eyes got slightly more used to the dim interior. 


82 


Peggy’s trial. 


What was that great big black thing over 
in the corner opposite ? She stared and stared, 
hardly breathing. Presently she gave a glad 
cry. She knew where she was now, and the 
deadly fear was all gone. For that tall wide 
shape was old Mr. Haskell’s barouche. Peggy 
had ridden in it too many times not to know 
it now. 

She did not stop to wonder how she had 
come to this barn, which was not at all on the 
road to the station. She only felt as if that 
old barouche meant home and comfort. Mr. 
Haskell’s house must be somewhere near, she 
knew, but she was too tired to try to find it. 
fn the carriage was a big buffalo robe, and 
under that she crawled, and in two minutes 
she was fast asleep. 


CHAPTER X. 


THE RESCUE AND RETURN. 

During this time Ted and Harry had gone 
forlornly home. As Peggy supposed, they 
found there neither Nurse nor father. It was 
nearly six o’clock when the doctor arrived. In 
a very few minutes his two unhappy, excited 
boys had told him the day’s troubles. 

“You got here at three o’clock!” he ex- 
claimed, in dismay. “ She must have taken the 
four-thirty train for Scranton, then.” 

Without stopping for any more particulars, 
he rang up the station-master on the telephone. 
Peggy, came the reply, had not been seen there 
at all. 

She must be lost, then, thought the doctor. 
But to be lost in Perrytown was much less 
terrible than to be wandering the streets of a 
city like Scranton. 

Jim was ordered back with the horse and 
83 


84 


PEGGY'S TRIAL. 


sleigh, and with two lighted lanterns they set 
out on a search. They drove rapidly down the 
street Peggy had first taken. Here they 
hardly looked at all. 

Before long, however, the road to the station 
swung off to the left. The main highway, on 
the contrary, kept straight on, and here was 
where Doctor Clayton thought Peggy might 
have made a mistake. With a lantern in each 
hand he got out and examined the tracks in the 
snow on both sides. 

Finally, on the main road, he found some 
small footprints, and beside one of them a few 
big crumbs of gingerbread. This decided him 
to try that direction first. 

Every once and awhile they saw the small 
prints in the snow, and at last they came to Mr. 
Haskell’s barn. The tracks led up to the little 
door. With his heart beating a hard tattoo. 
Doctor Clayton picked up a lantern and jumped 
before the horse had stopped. 

At first, like Peggy, he saw nothing but deep 
shadows. Then the light from the lantern fell 
full upon the barouche. A few wide strides 
brought the doctor beside it, and there, curled 
up in the furry robe, was Peggy, fast asleep. 


THE RESCUE AND RETURN. 85 

The gleams from the lantern showed a very 
pale little face where the tears had scarcely yet 
dried. Her father leaned over her tenderly 
with a big gulp in his throat. Very gently he 
lifted the robe, and then with great care picked 
up the sleeping child. She stirred uneasily a 
moment, but the day had been too hard for any- 
thing much short of a bomb to waken her now. 
Sound asleep in his arms she stayed till they 
entered their own front door. 

Ted and Harry, who had been waiting in a 
very fever of anxiety, rushed out into the hall. 
Before they could be hushed their wild hurrahs 
succeeded in reaching even Peggy’s sleeping 
ears. While she was still only half conscious, 
her father carried her into the office and shut 
the boys out. 

Peggy’s first thought, when she was once 
fairly awake, was one of surprise at finding her- 
self on the office couch. Generally when she 
woke up it was in her own little room. Gener- 
ally, too, it was morning. Now the lighted 
lamps showed it must be night. She turned 
over perplexedly, and lifted herself up by her 
elbow. Then she saw her father sitting be.side 
her. 


86 


Peggy’s trial. 


“ Hello, daddy ! ” she smiled, sleepily. How 
did I get here ” 

For the moment she had entirely forgotten 
all the day’s experiences. 

Instead of answering, Doctor Clayton bent 
and kissed her, took her up in his arms, 
and sat down in a big chair before the open 
fire. By that time she was beginning to re- 
member. 

“Why,” she said, hesitatingly, “I was in 
Mr. Haskell’s barn. And — and — I ran away. 
O ! ” she started up with a gasp. “ Has the 
stepmother come ” 

“ Peggy ! ” There was something in her 
father’s tone that quieted her at once. “For 
how many years have you been my little 
daughter ? ” 

“ I’ll be eleven next May,” she answered, 
softly. 

“ How many times in those years has father 
beaten you ? ” 

“ Why, never ! ” Peggy snuggled closer to 
him. 

“What has he ever done to show that he 
hated any of his children ? ” 

“Never done anything.” Peggy’s face was 


THE RESCUE AND RETURN. 8/ 

flame colour, but she looked squarely into her 
father’s eyes. 

“ Do you think he loves you all or not ? ” 
Doctor Clayton’s tone was very deep and ten- 
der, and the child’s heart began to beat pain- 
fully. 

“ I know you love us dearly,” she whispered, 
‘‘and — and — I didn’t run away from j/oUy 
daddy. I was afraid of the stepmother.” 

“ Peggy, if I love my children, how could I 
let any one else be bad to them ? ” 

“ But, but — ” her voice was broken, “ but 
Nurse says all stepmothers are bad. And Cora 
May’s grandmother told her they make fathers 
hate their children.” 

Doctor Clayton smoothed back Peggy’s 
rumpled hair. 

“ If that was true, little maid, what kind of 
a father would I be if I ever let a stepmother 
come near you } ” 

Peggy choked. “ Nurse and everybody says 
you are going to marry a stepmother, and 
— and — nobody could be nice who would 
take my own dear mother’s place away from 
her.” 

It had all come out in a burst. 


88 


Peggy’s trial. 


A deep flush spread over her father’s face. 
For a minute he stared at the fire without 
speaking. Then he turned his eyes to Peggy’s 
wretched little countenance, and he smiled 
tenderly. 

L.ofC. 


CHAPTER XL 


THE STEPMOTHER AND PEGGY’s THANKSGIVING. 

“ Little maid,” he began, “ I am going to 
tell you a story. Once there were a father and 
a mother, and three tiny children. They were 
all very happy together, and the father loved 
the mother more than words could begin to tell. 
One day, when the oldest child, who was a little 
girl, was about five years old, the dear mother 
was taken very sick. Nothing the father could 
do could make her well. The angels came and 
took her away with them to heaven.” 

Here Peggy put up her hand, and stroked 
his face gently. 

“Then the father and the three children,” 
went on the doctor, “ were left alone. Though 
the children were too young to remember their 
mother very well, the father always remembered 
her better and better. And he was lonesome 
beyond all telling. So he worked harder than 
89 


90 


teggy’s trial. 


ever, to make the days go quicker. After five 
or six years he hadn’t forgotten the dear mother 
at all. But he was beginning to see that he 
had not the right kind of a home for the three 
children. He was away most of the time, and 
they were left with a nurse. The nurse meant 
to do well, but she was not a very wise woman. 
The children were growing up a little rough 
and unruly. Not at all as their mother would 
like to have them. They didn’t always mind, 
and sometimes they even had fights together.” 

Doctor Clayton stopped a minute, and looked 
searchingly at Peggy, who blushed furiously. 

“ They didn’t fight very often,” she mur- 
mured, apologetically. 

‘‘Altogether too often for loving brothers 
and sisters,” said her father, shaking his head. 

“Now,” he continued, “about this time the 
father had learned to know a very sweet and 
gentle lady. He had grown very fond of this 
lady. But that didn’t mean that the memory of 
the mother was any less dear or sacred to him. 
This new friend, this gentle lady, was very, very 
fond of children, too. The father knew his 
little folks would be much better and much 
happier if she could always be with them. He 


THE STEPMOTHER. 


91 


knew she would take care of them, and teach 
them all the things their own mother would 
have taught them. She doesn’t expect them to 
love her more than they did that first dear 
mother. But I am sure if they only give her 
a fair chance they will love her very, very 
dearly, indeed.” 

By this time Peggy was crying softly with 
her face hidden. 

Doctor Clayton gently turned it up to his, 
and then he spoke more seriously even than 
he had spoken before. 

“ Peggy, if my little maid cannot say with 
all her heart that she will do her best to make 
a happy home for the loving lady, the lady 
shall never come at all. Can’t you trust your 
father, Peggy ? ” 

Peggy’s arms went close about his neck. A 
very tearful, contrite little voice whispered, “ I 
do trust you now, father, and I’ll try to love the 
new mother.” 

Just then there was a knock on the office 
door, and Doctor Clayton called “ Come in ” 
without getting up. When the door opened 
Peggy tumbled out of his lap in such a hurry 
that she almost fell sprawling on the floor. 


92 


Peggy’s trial. 


For the visitor was Miss Edith Barton. 

“ My Miss Barton ! ” shouted Peggy. She 
forgot her tears, her great trial, all the dis- 
agreeable and harrowing experiences of the day, 
in the delight of seeing this dear friend. 

She did not notice, as she hung on one arm 
after giving Miss Barton a sounding kiss, that 
her father had taken the young lady’s other 
hand and was still holding it. 

“ When did you get back ^ Are you going 
to stay for good, now.?” Peggy questioned 
breathlessly. 

Miss Barton laughed. “ I only arrived a 
couple of hours ago. Jim drove by me on 
the street and told me you had been lost. So 
I came up at once to find out what was the 
matter.” 

Doctor Clayton interrupted Peggy’s answer. 
“She ran away,” he said, solemnly, “to escape 
the clutches of a wicked stepmother.” 

Miss Barton’s face turned very pink, and she 
looked at Doctor Clayton imploringly. 

“ Did you, Peggy .? ” she asked, tremulously. 

Peggy nodded. “Yes, I did,” she said, with 
dropped eyes. “But I’m not going to run 
away any more. Father says she won’t be 


THE STEPMOTHER. 


93 


horrid and that she’ll love me. And — and — 
I’m going to try to love her, for father’s sake.” 

Miss Barton put both arms about the little 
maid. 

“Frank!” She spoke over Peggy’s head. 
“You ought to tell her.” 

Doctor Clayton laughed blithely. 

“ Peggy,” he said, “ do you think you could 
love your new mother as much as you do this 
interloper here ? ” 

Peggy shook her head. 

“ I don’t know what an interloper is, but it 
doesn’t sound good. I’ll try to love the step- 
mother,” she said, seriously; “but, daddy, you 
know nobody could be quite so nice as Miss 
Barton.” 

Her father laughed again, but there was a 
suspicious blur about his eyes. Then to Peggy’s 
intense surprise he turned to Miss Barton, and 
putting his arm about her waist bent over and 
kissed her. 

“That is just what I think, Peggy. Nobody 
conld be quite so nice. That’s why she's going 
to be the stepmother.” 

Peggy stood staring, her mouth and eyes 
wide open. For a moment she could not be- 


94 


Peggy’s trial. 


lieve what was so evidently the truth. When 
at last the full meaning of it all came to her, 
the joy in her eyes fairly transfigured the little 
face. Softly she clasped her hands together 
as she gazed at the two dear people before 
her. 

“Daddy, dear daddy,” she whispered, “and 
Mamma Edith.” 

Miss Barton said afterward that those words 
of the little ten-year-old made her feel as if no 
other ceremony was needed to make theirs a 
true wedding. 

The next day Peggy- was none the worse for 
her tramp in the cold and sleep in the barn. 
Which, Nurse said severely, was more good 
fortune than she deserved. 

“ If it hadn’t been for the buffalo robe,” she 
added, “you would probably have frozen in the 
barn.” 

The doctor’s long talk with Nurse had made 
her feel that she was largely responsible for 
Peggy’s escapade. She was doubly sorry, too, 
for all her words, now that she knew Miss Bar- 
ton was to be the stepmother. Curiously enough, 
no one had suspected that she would be the fu- 
ture Mrs. Clayton. The doctor’s visits to Carver 



“ SHE GAZED AT THE TWO DEAR PEOPLE BEFORE HER. 




THE STEPMOTHER. 


97 


were supposed to be intended for the cousin 
with whom she was staying. 

As for Peggy, she was so happy that she had 
almost forgotten her dread and fears of yester- 
day. That very day came a letter from Cora 
May. 

‘‘My new mother is here,” Cora wrote, “and 
she is the dearest new mother you ever saw. 
She says I can \dsit grandmother whenever I 
want, and that grandmother must visit us often. 
Home is miicJi nicer than it was before.” 

“ Ted,” said Peggy, impressively, as she read 
the letter, “you don’t ever want to believe any 
bad thing about <^;2ybody till you see her your- 
self. /think stepmothers are all beautiful^ 

“ When a man like my father,” answered Ted, 
oracularly, “marries a stepmother, you can just 
be sure that she’s most as splendid as he is 
himself.” 


THE END. 


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A 


NEW JUVENILES 


THE 

Cosy Corner Series 

A SERIES OF CHARMING ILLUSTRATED 
JUVENILES BY WELL-KNOWN AUTHORS 

We shall issue ten new volumes in this well-known 
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A Little Puritan Pioneer 

By EDITH ROBINSON 
Author of ‘‘A Loyal Little Maid,” ‘‘A Little Puri- 
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Madam Liberality 

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Author of “Jackanapes,” “A Great Emergency,” 
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A Bad Penny 

By JOHN T. WHEELWRIGHT 

The other seven will include new stories by Louise 
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Forty-four volumei previously published 


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NEW JUVENILES 


THE 

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By MARY F. WADE 

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’Tilda Jane 

By marshall SAUNDERS 

AUTHOR OF “ BEAUTIFUL JOE,” “ FOR HIS 
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Fully illustrated 

I vol., i2mo, $1.50 

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NEW JUVENILES 

Our Devoted Friend 
the Dog 

By SARAH K. BOLTON 

AUTHOR OF GIRLS WHO HAVE BECOME 
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Full^ illustrated with many reproductions from original 
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I vol., small quarto, ^1.50 

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SEND FOR CIRCULARS, ETC. 





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